3

Ricky

The wind blows gently, slipping its way in between the overgrown grasses. The blades of grasses moves in waves and birds chirping could be heard from a distance, as if harmonising with the gentle movements of the nature while embracing the dawn sun—it’s orange orb rose from the horizon.

Truly, it was a very beautiful scenery.

For most of people that is. Not for Ricky who woke up from his sleep feeling groggy, accompanied with head splitting severe hangover. He grunted—for a long time and despairingly—before sluggishly made his way through the hallway of his house to reach the kitchen. He was hoping that he could find something to drink—a water or anything—that could at least slightly disperse the insane amount of pain he felt starting from his forehead down to his nape, when he knew very well that he's not the type of person to buy groceries and all his exes never really know how to cook so there's barely any utensils in his kitchen.

Upon reaching the kitchen, his narrowing eyes—which sometimes twitched from the headache—gradually widened when he saw something on the kitchen counter.

On the counter, still steaming hot, was a bowl of hangover soup and a bowl of rice with a side of rolled eggs.

"What…?"

Although he was still suspicious of the phenomenon that he saw right in front of him, being an air-headed as he is, he slowly sat down in front of the dishes and looked around. His tummy grumbled simultaneously with his drooling mouth.

He wiped the drool, feeling more starved rather than feeling scared or disturbed by the dish. There’s a strong probability that a stalker might've been sneaking inside his house and cooked his meals, or he's simply just still hallucinating about eating a hearty breakfast when in reality, he's still sprawling on the side of the road, sleeping somewhere random outside his house. His eyes focused towards the steamy hangover soup in front of him.

It was a substance that he’d never seen before, a clear soup, with some dark greens floating above the surface. At a glance, it doesn’t look that delicious at all, but he could’ve sworn that soup fumed the most delicious smell he’d ever smell before, like the smell of the sea.

"Well..."

He looked around for one last time to see whether there were anyone other than him in this house, before mindlessly digging in.

Not far from where Ricky sat as he inhaled the food, at the upper cabinet, a pair of eyes watched him intently as he savored the soup, while also letting out a delightful moan upon biting the fluffy rolled eggs.

As he finished his food, it grinned.

***

"Dude, did you take a bath or something?"

That was the first question being asked by Taylor to Ricky when they met at school in the morning.

"What are you talking about?"

He scowled, still mad at him for recklessly threw a punch at his face yesterday when they fought for the pouch. Even so, he smelled himself, abiding to his friend’s curiousity. Weird, he smelled like lavender. His mind suddenly recalled the last few hours at his house before he went to school.

After having breakfast—which he’s never done before after enrolling into university—weirdly enough, he had this strong urge to wash his face and brush his teeth, when he rarely even wash his face in the morning especially in cold seasons.

After washing his face, he ought to just wear something that was scattering on the floor of his bedroom when he suddenly heard his wardrobe rattle. Alarmed, he reached his pillow and brought it to his front as a protection. He slowly inched closer towards the wardrobe.

After just a few foot away from the wardrobe, he flung the door open to see a pair of hangers with his clothes on it, other than it being empty because he never folded his clothes. On one hanger, it was just some  jeans that he usually wear and a piece of white t-shirt while on the other hanger is his brown leather coat. However, both of them smelled nice, as if they're washed.

Ricky inadvertently froze.

Then, like a normal human being, he freaked out, again mindlessly accepting the hospitality by grabbing the hangers and slammed the door shut. After that, he brought them to the living room and changed his clothes there before quickly leaving the house without locking the door.

"Hey, Rick, you okay?"

Adam snapped his fingers in front of him.

"Huh?” Ricky flinched, slowly coming back to reality. “What? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm good...."

Another person who’s worthy of his grudge appeared in front of him. If not because of his wide connections, Ricky would’ve targeted Adam as his prey. Ricky blinked his eyes for a bit. He still couldn't digest of what happened to him earlier—receiving a delicious breakfast dish and also a great hospitality. Was it because he drank too much?

"But seriously, you... You should drink your alcohol moderately. It's not weekend, you know?"

Adam snickered as he patted Ricky's shoulder.

"What? It's your fault that you bought too much alcohol. Drink moderately my ass."

Ricky retorted and gave Adam a jab on his side. They all cackled sarcastically, disturbing the surrounding.

"Anyway, you know about the pouch that we got from that nerd yesterday? It's a fake."

Ricky’s thick eyebrows furrowed into a frown After hearing what Adam just said.

"What? All of them?"

Adam nodded.

"After we celebrated being rich last night, me and Taylor went to the money exchanger to exchange money for the nuggets. But when we took out the nuggets, it turned into stone."

Taylor clenched his fist. "That nerd bastard, how dare he messed with us..."

Upon hearing what they said about that nerd, Ricky was struck with a strange sense of familiarity, particularly from his chest.

What is this…?

He frowned uncomfortably.

"Well, let's find him and teach him some manners, shall we?"

Taylor grinned, his amber eyes shone a wanton intentions, followed by Ricky who sneered at that nerd who made him feel weird. The university hallway was once again disturbed by their evil laugh.